Steve MacDonald

San Francisco recently voted to raise the minimum wage to $12.25 an hour with incremental increases to $15/hour by 2018.  At least one small business owner is shuttering a business as a result.

(Yahoo! Finance) “Borderlands Books as it exists is not a financially viable business if subject to that minimum wage.” …

The blog post went on to say that the Borderlands café business will stay open and should have “no difficulty at all” with the new minimum wage because it will be able to raise prices as needed. The bookselling business is different, the blog post argued, because book prices are set by the publishers and clearly printed on the books:

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From Paul Hsieh at PJ Media

The concept of “herd immunity” applies to gun ownership and crime rates just as it does to vaccinations and infectious disease.

Crime rates in Chicago dropped dramatically in 2014 after the state of Illinois allowed legal concealed carry. From the Washington Times:

[T]he number of robberies that have led to arrests in Chicago has declined 20 percent from last year, according to police department statistics. Reports of burglary and motor vehicle theft are down 20 percent and 26 percent, respectively. In the first quarter, the city’s homicide rate was at a 56-year low.

As Richard Pearson of the Illinois State Rifle Association observed:

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The head of the NH Chiefs of Police is concerned that if we allow constitutional carry minors could be permitted to carry concealed firearms.  I think we’re all concerned about that as are the sponsors of SB 116 but New Hampshire State law prohibits this and the new bill does not, to my knowledge, attempt changes to that.

But the chiefs chief is also on the record suggesting that (without regard to that law) minors have already been given permits by police departments in New Hampshire to carry concealed.  I’m hoping he misspoke, but either way,  are there any chiefs who would like to rebut the following?

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Last week, in Concord, a hearing took place for HB 119, a bill “establishing the John G. Winant Memorial Commission”.

The primary sponsors of this bill are very liberal Democrats Rep. Steven Shurtleff (House minority leader) and Senator Lou D’Allessandro.

The purpose of this bill is to “oversee the location, design, construction, and maintenance of a John G. Winant memorial”.  The bill also allows the governor to accept contributions and donations (in-kind or otherwise) for the memorial, in the “name of the State”.  By all accounts, no taxpayer money will be involved in this process.

So, what’s the big deal?   Well, for starters, Winant was a Republican.

So, why would two of New Hampshire’s most fervent Democrat leaders be sponsoring such a bill?

And why should ALL House Republicans reject this bill when it comes to the floor?

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Sometimes low hanging fruit yields interesting follow ups: Saturday I posted a tweet from @GraniteGrandma (Mary Gagnon).  She says that only the police should have guns.  I said Stalin would agree with her.  She responded to that with this.

http://twitter.com/GraniteGrandma/status/561714067837292544

So is it?  A safety issue?

There is a safety issue, but GraniteGrandma is not going to like it.

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Zandra Rice Hawkins is — what did I call her –just another paid progressive lobbyist hiding in the issue-advocacy bunker and a full-time Democrat party operative.  All she knows is the party narrative.  How else could she have embarrassed herself so badly in front of so many people at the SB 116 hearing on Thursday?

Consider her premise.  The presence of concealed firearms increases the likelihood that an everyday disagreement will escalate in to a shoot out.  There is no evidence of this and FBI statistics bear this out year after year, right here in New Hampshire where we consistently have one of the lowest homicide rates in the nation; and in neighboring Vermont also one of the lowest—-where they have constitutional carry already!

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